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MENTORS Marcia Crayford - Violin Mentor - made her Royal Festival Hall solo debut while still a student at the Yehudi Menuhin School and went on to perform concertos with Sir Adrian Boult, Sir Michael Tippett and Sir Simon Rattle. For 25 years she was leader of the Nash Ensemble which has a remarkable worldwide reputation for its performances of a wide range of music. She has made many prize-winning recordings with the ensemble and her performance of the Elgar Violin Sonata was recently named the benchmark in the BBC Music Magazine. On leaving the Nash Ensemble she was invited to lead the London Symphony Orchestra working with many of the great conductors. She appears regularly as guest leader with all the major orchestras, and some recent highlights include the last Star Wars film with John Williams and the LSO, performances at Covent Garden and concerts at the Edinburgh Festival and the BBC Proms with Donald Runnicles and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. This is her sixth year as mentor with the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival.
As a member of the Belcea Quartet Alasdair has recorded for EMI discs of Schubert, Brahms, Britten, Mozart, Fauré and Barber and collaborated with Ian Bostridge, Thomas Ades, Thomas Kakushka and Jonathan Lemalu. Their disc of Debussy, Ravel and Duttilleux quartets won a Gramaphone Award and an earlier recording of Janacek was awarded a Diapason d’Or in France. As well as being one of the first groups to participate in the BBC New Generation Artists Scheme, the quartet were also twice recipients of the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Awards for Chamber Music Ensemble. Alasdair has participated in many of the world’s important festivals including Edinburgh, Salzburg, Schubertiade, Risør, Delft, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham and Bath, performing alongside artists including Piotr Andrezewski, Imogen Cooper, Aleksander Madzar, Carole Presland, Kathryn Stott, Isabelle van Keulen, Valentin Erben, Borodin and Chilingirian Quartets, Michael Collins, Simon Keenlyside, Dame Anne Murray and Lisa Milne. As the founder of the Ulysses Ensemble, he has formed a close relationship with the Aldeburgh Festival, participating in two residencies culminating in their inaugural concert at the 2005 festival. Future plans include their Wigmore debut with Christine Schäfer in Pierrot Lunaire. Alasdair is also a regular professor on the Britten-Pears Summer International Quartet Academy, and has given chamber music masterclasses around the world, as far afield as Sydney, Australia. He teaches chamber music at the RNCM in Manchester. Richard Jeffcoat - Mentor Accompanist - was a chorister at St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh, and a Choral Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he read Classics and Music. He was on the staff of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama for eight years as accompanist and conductor, and directed the Edinburgh University Orchestra and associated ensembles in over forty concerts. In 2000 he founded the 1685 brand-name, which embraces all his musical endeavours, and currently he works with a small choir in the Midlands, presenting the broadest range of choral music, including many community events. In 2005 he started The Mendelssohn on Mull ‘Fringe’ by taking his choir all over the Island during the Festival. Since then he has worked on a number of interesting initiatives in the Midlands and South of England and the choir was chosen to represent Coventry at the Cork celebrations of its year as European City of Culture.
YOUNG PROFESSIONALS (details to be completed) VIOLINS Vera Josephine Landtwing - was born in February 1983 in Switzerland and began to play the violin at the age of six. She studied in Lucerne (Switzerland) with Gunars Larsens where she graduated with the “Konzertdiplom”. After that, she came to study in London as a postgraduate student with Vasko Vassilev and Boris Brovtsyn at Trinity College of Music. In summer 2005, she finished her studies with the Postgraduate Advanced Diploma and was also presented with the Guivier Prize for string playing 2004-2005. In July 2005 Vera was offered the opportunity to play in a Composer Portrait at the BBC Proms. At the moment, she continues her studies at Trinity College of Music and in Switzerland, and she plays in various ensembles as a freelance musician. Singing as her second study did gradually enlarge her musical expression so that now she often tries to include both instruments in her concert programmes. Ian Watson Zoe Beyers Sadie Fields Michael Gurevich Daniel Roberts VIOLAS Willem Mathlener - started his musical studies in Pretoria, South Africa, where he received violin lessons from Hester Woliz-Udal, Annemarie Swanepoel and Denise Sutton. During that time he was a member of the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra as well as freelance musician for most of the professional orchestras in South Africa. In 2005 he was awarded the Associated Board International Scholarship to further his studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama studying under Peter Lissauer and viola under Catherine Marwood. Emile de Roubaix Veronica Toth Emma Stevenson - Viola - began playing the viola at the age of 15 under the guidance of James Durrant MBE. After three years of study at the Music School of Douglas Academy she received the Stevenson Scholarship to study at the RSAMD with Catherine Marwood where she is currently in her final year. While studying at the RSAMD Emma has had the fantastic opportunity to play in master classes with Lawrence Power, William Conway, Barbara Westphal and Scott Dickinson. In July 2005 Emma received funding to attend a summer school in Italy where she received chamber music tuition from Hugh Maguire and performed in a master class to Maestro Rostropovich. Emma has played with Scottish Opera for their production of Massenet’s Cendrillon and with the Scottish Ensemble for their “Christmas by Candlelight” tour, and has recently been working with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Triona Milne CELLOS Miranda Barritt studied under Xenia Jankovic at the Musikhochschule Würzburg. She was selected to play on a year-long apprenticeship scheme with the Munich Symphony Orchestra, where she still regularly performs an extra player. She has spent last year working towards her Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Performance at the Royal College of Music with Melissa Phelps, learning baroque cello with Catherine Rimer. Miranda has participated in master classes with renowned cellists Marcio Carneiro, Christoph Richter, Johannes Goritzki and Colin Carr. She visited the International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove as a member of the Marcel Trio and with her duo partner Christopher White. Rowena Calvert David Edmonds
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